Lot Essay
"In 1986, Warhol made still another foray into 'pure' abstraction with a series of Camouflage portraits, based on standard designs used by the United States armed forces. He modeled his four-color pattern upon a swatch of camouflage netting purchased at an army and navy store on Fifth Avenue, tracing the interlocking shapes and ordering three silkscreens. He did not need a fourth silkscreen because he first gave the canvas an allover coat of the lightest color, printing the other three, darker colors over it. In addition to the nature-mimicking shades of green, brown and gray that appear in actual camouflage, Warhol also used many bright colors, such as reds and pinks used in combination with figurative imagery, particularly portraits, the camouflage pattern contributes a strong and energetic structural element that both complements and contradicts the photographic information that is superimposed on it.
Warhol used the camouflage pattern in various color schemes as the background for hislast series of self-portraits, made in 1986. These large paintingsare startling, rather horrific close-ups of the artist's starkly isolated face. Shocks of hair shoot up and outward in various directions, almost suggesting that the head is suspended from above. The face is gaunt and fissured by the jigsaw-like pieces of camouflage. The watchful eyes stare blankly at the viewer and the slightly parted lips betray no emotion. Warhol produced a related series of self-portraits, using the same photograph but printing it on monochrome grounds; though visually striking, these one-color canvases are less compelling and certainly less chilling than the camouflage versions. When the self-portraits were shown at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London in July and August, 1986, many viewers were deeply moved. Some spectators interpreted the pictures as a momento mori, an unblinking, unsentimental view of a hurriedly approaching mortality. Others perceived them as a metaphor for the multiplicity of was in which the artist was perceived; everyone saw different parts of the Warholian puzzle. The mirror of his age lurked behind a scrim so complicated that it was difficult to comprehend an of its elements" (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, pp. 401-402).
Warhol used the camouflage pattern in various color schemes as the background for hislast series of self-portraits, made in 1986. These large paintingsare startling, rather horrific close-ups of the artist's starkly isolated face. Shocks of hair shoot up and outward in various directions, almost suggesting that the head is suspended from above. The face is gaunt and fissured by the jigsaw-like pieces of camouflage. The watchful eyes stare blankly at the viewer and the slightly parted lips betray no emotion. Warhol produced a related series of self-portraits, using the same photograph but printing it on monochrome grounds; though visually striking, these one-color canvases are less compelling and certainly less chilling than the camouflage versions. When the self-portraits were shown at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London in July and August, 1986, many viewers were deeply moved. Some spectators interpreted the pictures as a momento mori, an unblinking, unsentimental view of a hurriedly approaching mortality. Others perceived them as a metaphor for the multiplicity of was in which the artist was perceived; everyone saw different parts of the Warholian puzzle. The mirror of his age lurked behind a scrim so complicated that it was difficult to comprehend an of its elements" (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, pp. 401-402).